


love vigilante

by Siria



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Episode Tag, Episode s02e12 Alaheo Pau'ole, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-15
Updated: 2011-12-15
Packaged: 2017-10-27 08:50:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/293925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siria/pseuds/Siria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The sun was sinking toward the horizon by the time the meal was being cleared away and the band was setting up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	love vigilante

**Author's Note:**

  * For [esteefee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/esteefee/gifts).



> For esteefee, with thanks to gyzym for reading over it for me!

The sun was sinking toward the horizon by the time the meal was being cleared away and the band was setting up. Lori stood and watched the last blaze of its glory while sipping at her champagne. The bubbles left a pleasant warmth in her stomach, a sympathetic fizz in her blood, and if she'd probably had one more glass than was strictly wise when at a social event with co-workers—well, it had been a long week, and no-one had yet seen fit to point out to Danny that he had a blob of cream from the wedding cake on the tip of his nose. In comparison, Lori thought, she was doing just fine.

She was curling her toes into the grass's pleasant coolness when Steve sidled up beside her. He'd long ago lost his suit jacket, had rolled his shirt sleeves up as soon as his best man's speech was done, but his lei was still draped around his neck—James Bond does _Blue Hawaii_.

"So," Steve said. "You and Danny, huh?" His eyebrows did something complicated; Lori had the dire suspicion that he thought he was being nonchalant, and the even more dreadful certainty that Steve wasn't entirely sure why he felt compelled to ask her that.

"Me and Danny what?" she said, drawing on the best poker face her card-shark of a grandma had ever taught her. She was curious to see just how big a hole he'd dig for himself before she decided to have mercy.

"Well," Steve said, scratching at the side of his nose, "you know, a guy, a girl, a hotel suite, handcuffs... It's a little, you know... I mean, Danny's a great guy and all, whatever you guys want to get up to with cuffs, I mean that's a, uh..."

Lori widened her eyes, radiating all the innocence she could muster, and said, "Kink _is_ a valid lifestyle choice, Commander."

The look on his face was all panicked indecision: like he didn't know if he should try to validate her and Danny's torrid affair or just initiate a tactical retreat. She let him sweat for a good thirty seconds or so before smirking and saying, "Nothing happened between me and Danny, handcuffed or otherwise. I'm a profiler—you think I didn't know what he was up to all along?"

"Well..." It was pretty hilarious, watching Steve desperately try to calculate which possible answer would be the least insulting.

"It was a pretty transparent ploy," Lori said, grinning. "I just wanted to see how long he'd run with it. I think he'd have lasted another ten minutes if you hadn't shown up when you did."

Steve squinted at her. "You're a little scary, you know that?"

"Says the man who deliberately threw the key to his work colleague's handcuffs off a hotel balcony in order to get his attention."

There was flush high on Steve's cheekbones, and Lori was quite certain that its cause was not champagne. "I was just fooling around," he said. "It was just a prank."

For a moment, Lori considered if she should say anything at all to that. If neither Steve nor Danny had admitted to their attraction yet—well, Lori had gleaned enough from Chin's hints, learned enough from Kono's blunt analysis, to know that both men were nursing bruised hearts. Still. "I'm not done working out how long it's going to take you, though."

"Excuse me?" Steve said.

"Getting his attention," Lori said. "I don't think you'd find it that difficult."

Lori counted at least seventeen different tells for confusion and blustery denial all over Steve's face—but also, in the way his gaze flickered just for a moment over to Danny, a little bit of hope. She downed the last of her champagne, took advantage of Steve's distraction to make him take the empty flute from her. "Honestly," she said, deliberately pitching her tone at nonchalance, making it seem as if this were obvious, as if it were no big deal, "if you'd just make out with him, I'm pretty sure things would work themselves out from there. And it would just be considerate for the rest of us—this much sexual tension generally makes for a bad combination with high explosives."

Steve gaped. How a man that classically handsome could also look that goofy, Lori had no idea.

"And now," she said, patting him gently on the arm, "I'm going to go dance with Max. You have a good evening, Steve." She left him standing there, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, while he watched Danny with a sort of desperate, soft look on his face, and headed over to the clear circle of grass that was serving as a dance floor. Chin and Malia were already out there, swaying in one another's arms, oblivious to the presence of anyone else. Max was already waiting for her, standing at military-perfect attention, his bow-tie absolutely straight. He kissed her hand before leading her out onto the dance floor.

"I thought that, given the evening's festivities, the _tango canyengue_ would be the most appropriate stylistic choice," he told her solemnly.

"Lead on," Lori said, grinning at him, moving with him as he nodded at the band and their music changed to something richer, stronger. All around them, the dance floor started to fill up: Kamekona leading Kono in a stately waltz; Joe doing a foxtrot with Chin's mom; Gracie Williams giggling as she danced in a circle with her dad and Steve. The sky grew darker and soon the dancers were lit up only by torchlight. Grace drooped, exhausted, after three turns around the floor balanced on the top of Steve's feet; she was carried off to bed in Danny's arms, and Lori smiled to see that Steve went with them, following close behind. She moved a little further into Max's embrace, smiling because watching other people have a chance at happiness was no small thing; laughed when Max dipped her backwards over his arm, angle perfectly calculated, because she was glad to have her own chance, too.


End file.
